Rule of Life 72: if your mother calls for health advice, act fast. Case in point, about 5 years ago my mom called with a health question on a day where I just happened to be off work. She was dizzy, tired, and having a hard time breathing. After a brief conversation that ended in “I’ll be fine, I’ll just lie down for a bit,” I drove over to my parents house. As it turns out, you can get a Prius to go from zero to sixty in 2 seconds, you just have push down really, REALLY hard on the accelerator.

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We all have roles in life. Some are conscious, others subconscious. Sometimes, we fall into old roles and habits around select groups of people. We have tendencies, all of us. It’s not always bad or good, but rather something that just IS.

What struck me this time, however, is that sometimes location does matter.

I’m not a travel writer. By most people’s assessment, our family doesn’t go any place that exotic. Someone did tell Sonia that we take interesting trips and I appreciated the sentiment. Sure, we do odd things, but we’re talking odd by “acceptable” standards. We weren’t drinking jack rabbit blood in the Mojave Desert or exploring the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia.

What I’m going to talk about is probably more complex than a quadrant. There’s probably a Z-axis that I can’t think of (or don’t want to think about, because then it would go to a classification of 8 instead of 4, but I can’t visually represent that). Maybe I’m being intellectually simplistic, but y’all are just gonna have to DEAL WITH IT.

I was a Chemistry major in college. I went to a Liberal Arts school, so despite my science oriented degree, I actually have a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry. We used to joke at Knox (although I’m sure it wasn’t unique to us at all) that I “had a B.A., but it feels more like BS.” Don’t laugh, it’s not really funny.

This is a battle worth fighting. We all know that this is an issue, and if it isn’t addressed, the risk is losing rolls of your pediatricians to other careers. Again, I’m familiar with this. We really don’t want a healthcare system that convinces its physicians, providers, and nurses that they are expendable and replaceable. We are on the verge of de-recruiting people from the profession. That’s not a great place to be.

Post call, July 2005, from being a floor senior in residency. I was back at work 3 or 4 days after Andrew was born. I tried hard to stay awake when I got home, but the Sandman won. Sonia snapped this picture and then scooped Andrew. No, AAP, we weren’t co-sleeping.

I once asked one of the nurses, Sharon, if they liked me only because of the donuts. Her response: “No. If you were stupid or a jerk, we’d eat your donuts but talk about you behind your back. We like the donuts, but we like you.” That’s one of the best, most honest compliments I’ve been given.

Sometimes, Sonia will make donuts. Why sprinkles? Because winners get sprinkles.

“And on the seventh day, God rested. And said, ‘Let there be coffee. And let the donuts be plentiful. Let there be glazed donuts, and cake donuts, and long johns, and buttercream and custard filled Bismarcks. But there nay should be jelly donuts, as those are disgusting.’ And so it was. And as God rested, God said, ‘This is pretty good. Keep ‘em coming. And may I please get another cup of Joe?’”

What amazes me, in some respects, is that some these decisions were made with careful thought, deliberation, and planning. But others weren’t. Many decisions were made for reasons that are now less clear to me, or at least made for reasons different than one would expect. In a way, it’s kind of “life, by accident.”

This is circa Halloween 1997. We had a costume run every year. I called this costume “Nature Boy”. Yes, that’s me biting the head off a rubber chicken. This is also how I looked when I met my future in-laws for the first time. I had, what’s it called? PANACHE.

I guess that last growth spurt isn’t happening. That modeling contract keeps missing my mailbox (and I’d need A LOT of waxing). That rich, deep, baritone voice will elude me. I’ll settle for an endless supply of band-aids and show myself the door.

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If you go out to race and know you'll lose, there's no probability involved. You'll lose. But if you go out knowing you will never give up, you'll still lose most of the time, but you'll be in the best position to kick from on that rare day when everything breaks right. -Bill Bowerman